Lessons Learned the Hard Way About Food Storage, by The Northern Prep

Survival Blog ^ | 3/14

[Kartographer]

In late 2010 when we started our food pantry, we took what I would call a “hodge-podge” approach. We read different articles and made lists of what we used and did not use but was recommended by the various publications. There is a tremendous amount of information, and this was a new endeavor for us. So our list would take the following into consideration: rotation of meals; caloric intake/nutritional value; pleasure value (is it something we enjoy i.e. pancakes vs. oatmeal); and last but not least, cost. Before we bought, we went to an Amish bulk store and Costco to look and compare prices versus what was available on the Internet. We have children, and when we started this endeavor we were a fairly typical suburban family. We tended to lean toward home cooked whole food meals. (My wife and I argued this point a bit as "home cooked meals" has come to mean something very different now.) We also favored organic, but we did not turn completely away from fast food and processed boxed meals. We had a small garden to grow vegetables and a small raspberry patch. Still, we also would eat out at restaurants, buy bleached flour, and buy convenience meals, such as frozen pizzas, boxed pasta, and canned sauce. Considering this background, we urgently started on our pantry as priority number one. We just discovered prepping and felt that we were completely unprepared.

[Farmer Dean]

I need to plan for an edible bean crop on the farm.Soybeans are easy to grow,so why not pintos or black beans?

[Kartographer]

$30.00 off

[Black Agnes]

White sugar, properly sealed from insects/critters, will last forever.

You will get no grief from me. I recently opened a package I’d stored in ‘08 and mislaid behind something in my pantry and it was good as new.

[Kartographer]

I’ve been think about trying this:

http://shop.honeyville.com/review/product/list/id/625/

[sockmonkey]

A couple of weeks ago I opened a (plastic) jar of Skippy Peanut Butter that had a use-by date from late 2011 (a little over two years old). It was edible but like eating play-doh (even more than peanut butter is normally like eating play-doh ;’).

I just opened a jar of Creamy Planters that said use by July 5th, 2012. It's fine, very creamy, and spreadable. No rancidity. It has the same ingredients as Skippy. Peanuts, Sugar, and Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils.

[GraceG]

[I’ve been think about trying this:

http://shop.honeyville.com/review/product/list/id/625/]

You could re-hydrate it by mixing it with honey and YUM YUM!!!

What is the storage life of distilled honey? I would imagine quite a LOT.

Another thing I recently bought for food storage is Corn Syrup, the muchly maligned corn syrup, a bottle of that in a backpack would give you enough energy to hike a very long ways. Use the dark corn syrup as it has extra nutrients in it.

Get this to go in a backpack.

and this for home storage

Energy density is vital if you need to travel any distance on foot after SHTF...

Plus you can barter a cup of syrup for other goods and it can always be distilled later for alcohol. (still not included)

[GraceG]

What is the Storage life on corn syrup and molasses?

[Kartographer]

I grew up on Dark Karo!! I don’t like the maple favored water stuff most people eat near as well.

[Black Agnes]

Indefinite but not really. They’ll grow stuff after a while. I keep my corn syrup frozen as it’s seldom used. It lasts for years in my freezer. I buy the smallest container I can (I only use it for divinity and the snowdrift frosting that’s boiled) and put it in a ziploc freezer bag.

YMMV.

[Kartographer]

Well I ordered a can. So I will report on the results after I give it a try.

[driftdiver]

Looking forward to hearing how it is.

[ansel12]

Canned pasta is like that, people pay attention to the dates on canned ravioli, chicken noodle soup and so on, after a few years it gets less appealing, your teen son will still eat it OK, but it does suffer in texture.

[ansel12]

I think well stored sugar is hard to beat as a stored food and trade good, and for all round usefulness, it is one of the golden goods for preppers.

[mrsmith]

Jis biggest lesson learned after “the next four years”...

Should have planted more fruit and nut trees!

Glad to see someone mention blackberries, raspberries are just as easy. Heck the only work is stopping them. Love my Mulberries though the birds love them more.
The hazelnut I planted 3 years ago is a joy, this will be their first ‘full=production’ year. The persimmon should yield this year , Chinkapins won’t start yielding for a couple more years (all free from the local ‘extension’). Plant them near but not next to the house. They draw game and varmints.
They require practically no care.

[Alas Babylon!]

It’s easy to grow and pack your own dry beans. Just let the vines die back and everything, including the pods, dry out. When the pods reach the state of “leather britches”, up root them. Use a big barrel to shake the beans loose by smacking the dried plants upside down in the barrel.

Just make sure the individual beans are completely dry before you package them or they’ll go moldy.

Use the tooth dent test. Bite a bean, and if it makes a dent, it’s still not dry enough.

[Bigg Red]

How do you keep the dang birds and squirrels from eating your blackberries and raspberries?

[Patriot Babe]

Don’t forget a large can of pudding and some crazy cheese =)

[mrsmith]

They’re 20 feet from the house- a hundered from the woods- and I think the activity keeps the birds away. Maybe the mulberries-farther from the house and nearer the woods- draw them away, I get near zero of the mulberries dang it.

Birds got all of some red raspbrries off a ways from the house. I’m gonna try laying plastic screening on them this year when they ripen.

In a SHTF situation some pitch lines in berry bushes would get a good harvest of birds.

[Sawdring]

Plastic.

[MCF]

Learn to do pressure canning.